Mysteries of Love

By Foxxi Smolder

Cyllene and Nomia have been best friends since time before mind - they complement each other perfectly, like sun and moon. That is, until Cyllene experiences a rite of adulthood that turns girls into women, and that Nomia is too afraid to join...

Everyone in the village knows about the mysteries, the deeply secretive rituals performed yearly under the mountain where Cyllene and Nomia make their home. When a young girl comes of age, she can join the mysteries - but anyone who has not been initiated is forbidden to know what takes place inside. Shy Nomia is all too willing to put off her initiation till another day, but Cyllene - older and more adventurous - takes the plunge, leading to an irrevocable rift between the two.

Nomia doesn't want to lose her closest friend - but nor can she keep secret the fact that her feelings have blossomed into something more. Will she have what it takes to mend their relationship? If it means taking the plunge and going through initiation, she might just have to - even if it means finding out what the dark, licentious mysteries are really all about!

Read on for over 8000 words of romantic, girl-on-girl smut with extra-hot helpings of historical setting, aphrodisiacs and group sex!

Excerpt:

Nomia had been kissed before, but not like this. The stranger's lips sought hers with a kind of desperation, a heated chase unlike the tentative explorations she'd made as a young girl in the secrecy of the forest near her home. Her mouth was crushed by it and she had no will with which to react; then the stranger pulled away, and throwing their arm out, twirled her along—another step in this strange new dance—to the next partner.

She spun without stopping to think, her feet continuing the rhythm of the dance even as her mind drew up short at the shock of what had just happened. Before she could dwell on it too long her next partner clasped her fingertips in their own and pulled her close again. This time she was almost ready for the kiss when it happened, but her partner surprised her with a glancing, almost chaste brush of the lips, then spun away into the dark.

Nomia caught herself, pressed her hands to her chest to muffle the heart beating wildly there. Her cheeks were glowing warm and her fingertips too, but she had no capacity to make sense of the easy way she'd been handled—been kissed—by her fellow initiates. Was this part of the rite? Or was she simply fair game in the wild, transgressive song that had taken over their proceedings?

Her breath hitched in her throat. Cyllene had never mentioned this—though of course, she was forbidden to. But she had told Nomia that the mysteries had changed her, had shown her who she was.

If this was a part of that transformation, Nomia thought, she was in deeper water than she'd bargained for.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Foxxi Smolder
• Release date: Oct 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463855652

Foxxi Smolder

Confirmed bacheloress by day and scribbler of indecent material by night, Foxxi Smolder has been writing sweet, smutty short stories since 2015. She is dedicated to bringing her readers works that embrace kink without sacrificing sex positivity or a sense of humor. When not writing, she enjoys tending her rose garden, doing Tarot readings for her cats, and adding to her collection of fainting couches.

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Mysteries of Love

© 2019 Foxxi Smolder

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Mysteries of Love

By Foxxi Smolder

The river water flowed over Nomia’s open hands, icy and indifferent to her skin. She held them there until she could hardly stand the cold, until she had to take them out and shake the water off in hopes of getting her blood to warm again; then she plunged them back into the river, watched her fingers turn from dusky brown to pale with undertones of blue.

Nomia! called Cyllene. What are you doing? There are plenty more apples to pick from over here.

Beside her on the grass rested a woven basket, half-full of round red fruit. Nomia was meant to be washing them clean, and here she was contemplating her own weaknesses again.

Nomia stood up reluctantly, drawing her hands from the river and tucking them into each other to restore their warmth. Her shoulders hunched up like a bird’s, overprotective against the cold—although there was nothing but a merry breeze today, and the sun was shining. Nevertheless she tucked her shawl around her elbows and hid her hands underneath her arms. As she was bending to pick up her basket Cyllene came running up behind her, looking quite pleased and slightly out of breath.

I’ve found some nice ripe ones, she said, but stopped at the sight of Nomia shivering under her flimsy wrap. What are you doing, silly thing? Your dress is all wet.

Washing them, like you said, Nomia replied, trying to be emotionless about it. Despite her efforts there was an unmistakable chatter in her voice; she deftly pulled the edges of her shawl over her cold, pale hands so Cyllene could not see. She picked up the basket and hefted it onto her hip, which meant Cyllene could not come closer and lay her hand on Nomia’s shoulder as she clearly longed to do.

The other girl drew near regardless, stopping just short of arm's reach. Her hair, Nomia couldn't help but notice, was unbound and running over her shoulders, and the flush in her face came not from wind but from her haste to join Nomia. Her